THE REACH OF WAR: SOUTH KOREA

THE REACH OF WAR: SOUTH KOREA; Hostage's Death Unleashes Mixed Emotions Back Home

By JAMES BROOKE

Published: June 24, 2004

SEOUL, South Korea, June 23—
The beheading of a South Korean hostage in Iraq provoked demonstrations on Wednesday against plans to send 3,000 more troops to Iraq this summer. But it also set off an angry backlash.

Callers deluged mosques with telephone bomb threats, e-mail messages crashed a Defense Ministry Web site with offers to fight terrorists, and nearly one-quarter of poll respondents at two youth-oriented Web sites said the killing of their compatriot prompted them to back the deployment of more troops.

As intended by the kidnappers, the killing of Kim Sun Il, a 33-year-old interpreter, pumped new life into a movement to stop the plan to send more troops, a deployment that would make South Korea the third-largest source of foreign troops, after the United States and Britain. The killing emboldened 50 members of the National Assembly to endorse a motion on Wednesday to stop the planned deployment.

''The environment in Iraq has changed significantly,'' the lawmakers said, echoing the sentiments shared by 3,000 demonstrators at a candlelight vigil here on Wednesday night. But the legislative group is 100 members short of a majority, and South Korea's president, Roh Moo Hyun, is expected to prevail with his plan to send the troops to northern Iraq's Kurdish areas.

''I still feel heartbroken to remember that the deceased was desperately pleading for his life,'' Mr. Roh said in a television address, recalling the video images broadcast here that showed Mr. Kim crying, ''I don't want to die.'' But, Mr. Roh said, ''we shouldn't let them achieve what they want through terrorism.''

With no ties to Iraq other than oil imports, South Korea and Japan seem to be sending troops largely to stay on the good side of the United States, their main military ally. In Japan, a poll published Tuesday in The Asahi Shimbun showed that 58 percent of respondents opposed the presence of Japanese soldiers in Iraq. In South Korea, public opinion has been more evenly split.

''Anti-American sentiments, and maybe anti-Arab sentiments, will grow further, but I think it is very hard for President Roh to cancel the plans,'' Kim Dong Choon, professor of political sociology at Songkonghoe University, said Wednesday.

Selig S. Harrison, a visiting American expert on Korea, sounded a similar note, saying in a separate interview: ''President Roh is going to be damaged politically by this, but I would be very surprised if he retreats. He is in such a box now, he can't retreat.''

An unexpected reaction was Wednesday's wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Iraqi sentiment.

''An innocent son of our nation was murdered,'' read one of the many messages that crashed the Web site of South Korea's Defense Ministry. ''If you allow me to volunteer for Iraq, I will fight terrorists to avenge his death.'' Other messages urged military strikes against terrorists.

At a rally in Seoul, conservative protesters said the government should send combat troops to Iraq, instead of doctors and engineers.

''We want revenge for Kim's killing,'' the conservative protesters shouted, burning portraits of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of the Islamic militants who beheaded Mr. Kim and dumped his body and head on a road.

After callers threatened to blow up Seoul's main mosque, riot police officers were posted outside the building. Amid fears of a reaction against the country's 40,000 Muslims, most of whom are immigrants, the police tightened security around 30 other mosques across South Korea.

In a country that has the highest per capita use of high-speed Internet connections, the government threatened to shut down any domestic Internet portal that showed images of the beheading. Naver, one of the nation's busiest Web sites, received 60,000 messages on Wednesday morning about the killing, many demanding revenge.

The nation's mood swing could be seen in Pusan, where Mr. Kim grew up. On Monday, when Koreans believed that their pleas would be heard, his neighbors had put up a banner outside his house that said: ''The South Korean people have never fired a single bullet at Iraqis. Please send back Kim Sun Il alive.''

One of eight children of a poor family in Pusan, Mr. Kim had graduated with a degree in Arabic studies from South Korea's top language school and had hoped to perform missionary work, combining his Christian faith with his Arabic- and English-language skills. According to the latest reports, he was held hostage for three weeks before this kidnappers cut his head off.

Minutes after news of his killing, angry neighbors tore down placards saying, ''Koreans are friends of the Iraqis.''

In Iraq, a South Korean medical unit of 35 doctors had suspended work on Monday to protest the kidnapping of Mr. Kim. Working out of a former air base 12 miles west of Nasiriya, the doctors have treated about 20,000 patients since their arrival last year, their interpreter told Agence France-Presse.

In his television address, Mr. Roh appealed for calm and emphasized that South Korean troops were going to Iraq to rebuild the country.

''The South Korean plan to send troops to Iraq is not to engage in hostilities against Iraqis or other Arab people, but to help reconstruction and restoration in Iraq,'' he said.

The president's Uri Party said in a statement, ''Our country has provided medical and construction aid since last year and our efforts to help Iraq's reconstruction will continue.''

But the violence against foreigners in Iraq is forcing a pullout by South Korean companies, long reknowned in the Middle East for displaying construction and business skills in tough environments. An evacuation of South Korean civilians from Iraq is now under way.

''To prevent similar acts of terror from happening again to South Korean nationals, the government has decided to take measures to quickly evacuate all South Korean nationals in Iraq, except those who are absolutely necessary,'' a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Shin Bong Kil, said.

In a sign of the times, Cana General Trading, the company that employed Mr. Kim, announced Wednesday that it would pull all of its Korean workers out of Iraq and suspend operations there.

Photos: Kim Jong Kyu, the father of the Korean man beheaded in Iraq, Kim Sun Il, during the vigil in Seoul. (Photo by Jin-hee Park/European Pressphoto Agency); After the killing of Kim Sun Il, about 3,000 South Koreans took part in a candlelight vigil in Seoul yesterday to protest sending more troops to Iraq. (Photo by Jae-hyun Seok for The New York Times)